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Starting from Zero

I’ve been hearing the term “Bitcoin” for a while. It didn’t seem to be something to be taken seriously. After all, who would buy or sell a currency that isn’t backed by any thing, anyone, any bank, or especially any government?

Apparently somebody. Two days ago a Bitcoin became worth over $4,200 U.S.

Per coindesk.com, a Bitcoin was valued at 6 cents on July 19, 2010. So if you had bought $100 worth of Bitcoin on that date, you would have about $100/.06 X $4,200 = $7 million dollars now. And I’m sure most people by now have heard the proverbial story about how someone bought 2 pizzas with 10,000 Bitcoins. Which at today’s valuation would be $4,200 X 10,000 = $42 million dollars. Oh, had I only been in the pizza business.

And I’m sure a lot of people feel that way. They feel like they missed the boat on digital currency. I assure you, you haven’t.

These are still the early days.

How do I know this? Well, as far as I can tell, the Bitcoin system is crap. I mean, as far as I can tell (so far), it’s a crappy cumbersome system that most people aren’t going to bother with. And now it’s too expensive to even want to get involved with. Few venders accept it. It’s mostly in the realm of people who need to conduct transactions in ways that are hard to trace; ie drug dealers, money launderers, extortionists etc.

But who needs to be involved in that crap.

Having just travelled to Europe on a vacation however, I see how nice it is to have a common currency. The Euro is great. You can spend it all over the place. So wouldn’t a digital currency that anyone in the world would take, from your phone to their phone or computer, be great?

To be honest, I’ve never used Bitcoin. So tonight I went to bitcoin.org and read the instructions. The first thing you need to do is download a digital “wallet.” Fair enough. So I’m downloading something called “Bitcoin Core” which was one of several wallets on offer. When I ran it it said that I need “145 gigabytes” of free disk space, and now it’s “Synchronizing with the network.” A process that it estimates will take 31 more hours.

Whew. Are they serious?

Is the general population going to start using a complicated, inconvenient system when instead they can just pull $10 or a credit card out of their wallet? I doubt it. I think for quite a while yet, digital currencies with remain in the realm of computer dorks that got in early and people in the underground economy that don’t want to have to launder suitcases of cash.

I believe digital currency has a great future. And I want to see it in the hands of everyone.

But what to do?

The only answer is, create a new digital currency. I have been an IT guy, and I know my way around a computer, but I’m not a software engineer. And I don’t want to spend 10 years re-inventing the wheel. So I’m going to have to build on what others have done. And I’m going to have to try to make the available software fit into the business model I have in mind.

What is that business model? How am I going to get digital currency into the hands of every human on earth? Ye shall see.

But firstly, I needed a name. First I thought of “starcoin.com,” because every person lives under the stars. And the stars are the ultimate destination of everyone. But that name was taken, and the owner wanted $100,000 for it. Good luck there.

So then I found taocoin.com was available for only about $350. Tao is an interesting Chinese word. One of the meanings is that the natural world has a pattern that keeps the Universe balanced and ordered. And the world has never been so out of balance with so few people having so much and so many people having so little. So perhaps it’s time to put wealth in everyone’s hands, and give balance back to the Universe. And thus I chose Taocoin to be the name.

And thus, wish me luck on my grand adventure. I would ask you to join me, except I have no stock to sell, or coins to give away or sell.